A previous excursion to Sasse Mountain via the Jolly Mountain trail ended in heartbreak as the snow just below the summit became too mushy to handle without the snowshoes that I’d left back at the cabin. Fast forward past a month of snowmelt to my second snowshoe-free attempt (this time via the Sasse Mountain trail) and voila! Another turnaround due to too-deep too-soft snow just below the summit. If only I’d had some sort of warning – a premonition, perhaps? – or some way to predict this outcome…

Oh well.

Goals

I hit the trailhead at 11:45, and I know this because I’ve made a mental note to myself to always record start and stop times since Gaia doesn’t appear to expose this information for recorded tracks except via the default title. The forecast was a 40-50% chance of light rain every hour with the volume peaking around 4PM. In other words, pretty ideal conditions for testing out a new rain jacket. The trail itself was an old forest service road and were there no snow at the top I imagine you could drive all the way to where I turned around just 1,000 feet below the summit since both of the gates on the road were open. Unfortunately due to the fact that it switchbacked its way up the northern side of the ridge patchy snow eventually gave way to solid snow somewhere around the 4,000 foot line.

I was still awaiting the arrival of my AB watch with an hourly beep option so instead I opted for alarms on my phone to schedule breaks. I like to remove my shoes during stops to let moisture escape as evidenced by steam visibly rising from the openings. This time around I watched the black dampness of the heel portion of the insole gave way to a charcoal color as the surface dried in much the same way that a foggy bathroom mirror slowly turns clear. Removing the insole I noted that while the heel was dry the rest of it was not and that this quickly changed with the insole fully exposed. Lesson: always remove the insoles from your shoes during stops to maximize drying and reduce the onset of blisters.

As I rounded a bend into the valley just northwest of the peak I ran out of road and attempted to kick steps up to the ridge. Unfortunately it turned out to be more mid-thigh postholing than any kind of stepping so after just a few minutes I threw in the towel and turned around.

On the way back to the trailhead I noticed that the clouds were going the wrong way. Normally the weather here moves eastward but at this particular point in time while looking north the clouds were definitely moving westward. I recalled from the book Ultralight Winter Travel that low pressure systems (storms) in the northern hemisphere rotate in a counter-clockwise direction and that you can use this fact to tell whether the storm is headed your way. Looking south I saw that the clouds there were also moving westward which indicated that the storm was more or less directly south of me. Judging from the gray nastiness on the southern horizon this appeared to be spot-on. Later I could have sworn that the movement of the clouds shifted northward and lo and behold I got dumped on shortly after that.

Gear

I said I’d put together a gear list for day trips, feast your eyes on this:

https://lighterpack.com/r/7tx9ce

I didn’t customize it for this particular trip, however. At the very least it’s missing my Chainsens.

What Worked

My hunch that I could replace a dedicated rain shell and wind shell with a single rain shell with pit zips was spot on: the Montbell Versalite performed like a champ. It was breathable and comfortable on steep stretches with the pit zips wide open, it kept the wind off me during stops, and thanks to the on-and-off showers I got a good idea of how it performed in the rain (including some heavier stuff at the end of the trip).

The light tan color on my Zion pants made it easy to see the damp spots left by rain drops. This in turn made it easy to tell whether I was “cooking myself dry” ECWCS-style by using body heat and movement to evaporate water out of my clothing faster than the rain could add it. When the tide started to turn in the rain’s favor I’d quickly slip on the Versalite and continue on my way.

Layering my REI synthetic liner socks under the DexShell waterproof socks proved to marginally increase comfort. Those synthetics are so thin that I think I’d be better off just slapping the DexShells on over my regular Drymax socks and leaving the liners at home.

What Didn’t

The Versalite was great at keeping my top dry but compared to the cagoule its shorter length meant that the fronts of my things got pretty soaked. Since your thighs press against your pants every time you take a step this created an uncomfortable amount of cooling. It’s worth noting that everything from the knees down was not only less wet but also didn’t feel cold at all since the pants hang loosely there and only occasionally brush against skin.

My other gripe with the Versalite – although no fault of its own – is that my back and shoulders got chilly where my pack was pressing against them. In The Ultimate Hiker’s Gear Guide fancypants backpacker Andrew Skurka made a point that up until now was lost on me due to my aversion to crap weather: a layer of fleece between your base layer and rain shell is important because a wetted-out rain shell is 20F cooler than a dry one. Add a little pressure and you’ve got a recipe for rapid heat loss.

What’s Next

I’ve ordered an Enlightened Equipment Rain Wrap to add thigh coverage to my new rain ensemble. I’ve also ordered a KUIU Peloton 97 fleece to act as a mid-layer.

Route

Gaia folder:

https://www.gaiagps.com/public/lhsOrbVT4KWbdtCWf0Fj7MC9

11 miles round-trip, 2,400 feet of elevation gain.

Although measuring distance in Caltopo is easy when you’re planning your route it’s a bit harder to determine how much distance you have left on the actual hike if all you have is a squiggly line on a map. As a result I’ve decided that I’m always going to add a halfway mark.

Photography

Storm over Red Mountain

SmugMug gallery:

https://turigrinos.smugmug.com/Adventures/2020/Sasse-Mountain-2/

Due to the rain this was a pretty weak trip for photos, I only took the two that already appear on this page. I should also note that the top photo is actually the ridge north of Sasse and not the peak itself.

When I swapped out my giant astro lens for a more modest pancake lens one of the big differences in reviews was that the pancake lens had some trouble with chromatic aberration. If you look closely at the edges of the snow patches in the picture at the top of this post you can see that the edges are ringed with purple. I don’t know if I just forgot to turn on reduction since it was never a problem before but it’s extremely noticeable. Just something to keep an eye on going forward.